Author Archives: Deborah Elkins

If you change the locks when your spouse moves out, be prepared to pay some rent. In McIlwain v. McIlwain, the Court of Appeals today upheld an award to a wife of one-half the fair market rental value of a ...

On further study, a Mecklenburg County Circuit Court reaches the same conclusion as in its Feb. 12 opinion [VLW 008-8-142] and holds that a contract provision between VDOT and a contractor hired to work on the Route 58 Clarksville Bypass ...

In this proceeding to have a convicted rapist civilly committed as a Sexually Violent Predator under Va. Code §§ 37.2-900, a Greensville County Circuit Court denies respondent’s motions in limine to prohibit the commonwealth from referencing any results of tests ...

A defendant who obtained a check from homeowner for $2,295 to purchase materials for a home improvement project, but who gave $800 of the funds to a codefendant to pay for van repairs and failed to account for an additional ...

A claimant loses his appeal claiming the commission erred by setting aside the outstanding award instead of terminating it, a question which is procedurally barred under Rule 5A:18. The record shows that at no time before the commission issued its ...

A mother with a long history of homelessness and failure to comply with rules for homeless shelters where she stayed with the child loses her parental rights in this Court of Appeals decision. A psychological assessment indicated mother was suffering ...

A mother’s failure to come to terms with her mental illness, according to expert testimony, impairs her ability to care for her child and the Court of Appeals upholds the trial court’s decision to terminate the mother’s parental rights. Upon ...

The Court of Appeals affirms a defendant’s conviction for the murder of his 80-year-old wife with a .38 caliber pistol her son had given her for her protection, despite defendant’s claim at trial that his wife had asked him to ...

At defendant’s sentencing for burglary, abduction and firearm use for breaking into his girlfriend’s sister’s home and holding her family at gunpoint for nine hours, in an effort to get them to have the girlfriend bring his daughter to him, ...

The Court of Appeals upholds a circuit court’s termination of a mother’s parental rights to her three children, including her seven-year old daughter who had been left unsupervised for several days when she was removed from the home “in deplorable ...